half yearly results, what can i do to improve? (particularly french!)

[carolinewang206]

Hey everyone, my school does half yearlies quite early so we are getting results back now. I'm a weird mixture of happy and disappointed with how I'm going.

My results/ranks were:

English Extension: 22/25 for critical, 20/25 for creative, 84% and 1/8
3u maths: 81% 3/6
2u maths: 94% 1/27
French continuers: 72% 5/5 (all the others were in the 70's apart from one person who got 92)
Economics: 96% (lost 2 marks in multi's and 1 in the essay) 1st
Advanced english: 19/20 for module A essay 15/15 SA's 14/15 creative, 96%, 1st

Overall I'm quite happy because I know I did my best, but now I need to work on improving my results for trials. I'm worried but also not worried about french, its a very strong class (1st: mum is french teacher, dad is french, lived in and went on exchange to france, studied french since year 8, 2nd: is swiss-french, mum tutors hsc students, lived in switzerland for past 4 years, 3rd: is also french, until last year spend 3 months of each year in monaco, 4th: went on exchange to france for 6 months, 5th: (me) studied it as an elective from partway through year 10).
Obviously its quite hard to beat any of the others, I'm doing my best and doing lots of practice papers, reading books in french and watching films. My teacher does usually get external results way above internals so i'm not too stressed.

Her beginners class the other year:
(internals/externals)
1st: 90/96
2nd: 81/96
3rd: 72/90
4th: 68/89

generally about 19% of beginners get a band 6 and 30% of continuers. I'm hoping for a band 6, but ideally 94??

Is it possible? Should I be worried? Particularly for french what else can i do? But also for other subjects does anyone have advice?


THank you!!!!

[jamonwindeyer]

Hey everyone, my school does half yearlies quite early so we are getting results back now. I'm a weird mixture of happy and disappointed with how I'm going.
...
THank you!!!!

Hey Caroline!

Those are some incredible results! Seriously, well done, you should be really proud of them!

There is definitely no reason to be concerned about French; as long as you are confident with the content itself, the rank won't matter much in your case. Since your class has such a strong upper range, then even being 5th, their results will pull you up. So assuming you Top 5 all do really well in finals, you'll all get incredible marks to show for it! So absolutely no reason to be concerned there

You've got a great set of ranks and marks, with room to build in areas if you want to - You are in a great spot. You are also in the right mindset - You are ready to figure out where your marks went and increase your marks even more for HSC Trials. All in all, you have no reason to be worried!

Congrats on great results! If you had any specific questions about things to do for specific questions, definitely shoot them into the relevant board/thread. We'd be happy to help

[elysepopplewell]

Overall I'm quite happy because I know I did my best, but now I need to work on improving my results for trials. I'm worried but also not worried about french, its a very strong class (1st: mum is french teacher, dad is french, lived in and went on exchange to france, studied french since year 8, 2nd: is swiss-french, mum tutors hsc students, lived in switzerland for past 4 years, 3rd: is also french, until last year spend 3 months of each year in monaco, 4th: went on exchange to france for 6 months, 5th: (me) studied it as an elective from partway through year 10).
Obviously its quite hard to beat any of the others, I'm doing my best and doing lots of practice papers, reading books in french and watching films. My teacher does usually get external results way above internals so i'm not too stressed.

Her beginners class the other year:
(internals/externals)
1st: 90/96
2nd: 81/96
3rd: 72/90
4th: 68/89

generally about 19% of beginners get a band 6 and 30% of continuers. I'm hoping for a band 6, but ideally 94??

Is it possible? Should I be worried? Particularly for french what else can i do? But also for other subjects does anyone have advice?


THank you!!!!

Hey Caroline - I'll specifically chat about French here. Exactly which part of the exam you were allocated which marks for. French is a game of strategy! If you've got reading down pat, you use the dictionary well and effectively but your vocab is also pretty on point, then that's perfect. If you're like most students and underperform in listening - then we need to hone in on those skills. If grammar is pulling you down, or even wasting your time in exams, the best thing you can do is stop right now and just focus on the grammar! It will be hugely beneficial in the long run. So, which part is weighing you down do you think? I can provide some suggestions for each, I did HSC beginners French and I'm learning Italian now, so I can tell you what helped me with different aspects and hopefully they assist you too!

[carolinewang206]

Hey Caroline - I'll specifically chat about French here. Exactly which part of the exam you were allocated which marks for. French is a game of strategy! If you've got reading down pat, you use the dictionary well and effectively but your vocab is also pretty on point, then that's perfect. If you're like most students and underperform in listening - then we need to hone in on those skills. If grammar is pulling you down, or even wasting your time in exams, the best thing you can do is stop right now and just focus on the grammar! It will be hugely beneficial in the long run. So, which part is weighing you down do you think? I can provide some suggestions for each, I did HSC beginners French and I'm learning Italian now, so I can tell you what helped me with different aspects and hopefully they assist you too!

Hey hey!

Thank you so much!

For listening i got 18/25- the main problem wasnt understanding texts though, it was more rounding of my answer and linking back to the question- so i generally lost marks for my response in english.

For reading part A, it was a similar issue, and also because we get language and content questions and i ended up with 11.5/19

reading part B (writing) i got 12/15
and normal writing i got 4/5

my grammar is quite good, but its generally just answering questions in english and getting sufficient detail in.

thank you so much for all of your help!! really appreciate it!

[carolinewang206]

Hey Caroline!

Those are some incredible results! Seriously, well done, you should be really proud of them!

There is definitely no reason to be concerned about French; as long as you are confident with the content itself, the rank won't matter much in your case. Since your class has such a strong upper range, then even being 5th, their results will pull you up. So assuming you Top 5 all do really well in finals, you'll all get incredible marks to show for it! So absolutely no reason to be concerned there

You've got a great set of ranks and marks, with room to build in areas if you want to - You are in a great spot. You are also in the right mindset - You are ready to figure out where your marks went and increase your marks even more for HSC Trials. All in all, you have no reason to be worried!

Congrats on great results! If you had any specific questions about things to do for specific questions, definitely shoot them into the relevant board/thread. We'd be happy to help

Hey Jamon! thanks so much, really appreciate it, your 2 unit lecture definitely helped me out heaps!!

[elysepopplewell]

Hey hey!

Thank you so much!

For listening i got 18/25- the main problem wasnt understanding texts though, it was more rounding of my answer and linking back to the question- so i generally lost marks for my response in english.

For reading part A, it was a similar issue, and also because we get language and content questions and i ended up with 11.5/19

reading part B (writing) i got 12/15
and normal writing i got 4/5

my grammar is quite good, but its generally just answering questions in english and getting sufficient detail in.

thank you so much for all of your help!! really appreciate it!

Hey!
So, to be clear - is the issue with listening that you are understanding the text, but you're not selecting the information judiciously enough to answer the question directly? Are you giving too much information or just avoiding the question directly?

Writing seems to be going really well for you! You are so close to getting full marks there though - identify the exact point in the response where you lost a mark and then make note to not do that again! Remember you want to show case as many of your skills as possible, whether it be idioms, tenses, vocabulary...

For the reading: Usually the problem is that people misinterpret tiny sections of the text and then the whole answer is out of whack - it could be as simple as not recognising the text being written in past tense and then the jist of the question changes to focus on something not quite on track. Or it could be something simple like allocating a pronoun to the wrong person and then getting the plot-to-person mixed up. Is this what's happening to you? I found that I performed best in the reading activities. My strategy was to read the question first, then highlight the exact piece of information in the question that I needed in order to respond well. Then, I'd read the text and underline/circle/highlight the exact moment I started to find the information I needed to answer the question. My teacher recommended against it (and I see why!) but this way I found that I could work out where to skim if I'd already found my answer, so I wasn't wasting extra time.

Let me know what you think!

[Cranium002]

 If your school provide for the French student exchange. Do it. It enhances your French in both orally and literary. If you would like to improve into the writing part, my best advice is to keep practicing writing essays.

[elysepopplewell]

If your school provide for the French student exchange. Do it. It enhances your French in both orally and literary. If you would like to improve into the writing part, my best advice is to keep practicing writing essays.

Adding to this - consider a french pen pal/emailer. I was in touch with one of the French exchange students that came to our school a few years prior, and even though we only talked on Facebook, I made sure it was in French and I took note of the way she used different expressions. Also helpful!

[carolinewang206]

Hey!
So, to be clear - is the issue with listening that you are understanding the text, but you're not selecting the information judiciously enough to answer the question directly? Are you giving too much information or just avoiding the question directly?

Writing seems to be going really well for you! You are so close to getting full marks there though - identify the exact point in the response where you lost a mark and then make note to not do that again! Remember you want to show case as many of your skills as possible, whether it be idioms, tenses, vocabulary...

For the reading: Usually the problem is that people misinterpret tiny sections of the text and then the whole answer is out of whack - it could be as simple as not recognising the text being written in past tense and then the jist of the question changes to focus on something not quite on track. Or it could be something simple like allocating a pronoun to the wrong person and then getting the plot-to-person mixed up. Is this what's happening to you? I found that I performed best in the reading activities. My strategy was to read the question first, then highlight the exact piece of information in the question that I needed in order to respond well. Then, I'd read the text and underline/circle/highlight the exact moment I started to find the information I needed to answer the question. My teacher recommended against it (and I see why!) but this way I found that I could work out where to skim if I'd already found my answer, so I wasn't wasting extra time.

Let me know what you think!

Hey Elyse! Yes, generally the problem with listening is that I understand the whole text but don't put in parts that I think are irrelevant and totally forget it.

I think for reading I get a bit flustered because of the time constraints and tend to skim over the text. I really like your idea of highlighting though! I think that would work well!

I've read a few books in French and it does help with my comprehension but for me the main problem is time for the reading section.


In response to the pen-pal idea
I have a friend who is French and we often speak in French together so it's quite helpful to pick up more colloquial vocab.

I would have loved to go on exchange but it's just too full on at school right now to be able to take so much time out

Thank you so so much for you help!! I'll work on that technique for reading!

[elysepopplewell]

Hey Elyse! Yes, generally the problem with listening is that I understand the whole text but don't put in parts that I think are irrelevant and totally forget it.

I think for reading I get a bit flustered because of the time constraints and tend to skim over the text. I really like your idea of highlighting though! I think that would work well!

I've read a few books in French and it does help with my comprehension but for me the main problem is time for the reading section.


In response to the pen-pal idea
I have a friend who is French and we often speak in French together so it's quite helpful to pick up more colloquial vocab.

I would have loved to go on exchange but it's just too full on at school right now to be able to take so much time out

Thank you so so much for you help!! I'll work on that technique for reading!

For listening, the skill of taking notes is difficult to master. I sometimes would think "Yep, I understand the jist of this text" and by the time I'd actually write my ideas down, I'd forget the exact details to answer the question, particularly for the more complicated listening texts towards the end of the section.

How are you using the reading time at the beginning of the exam? I used that for the reading texts, so I would aim to get through at least one (I did beginners!) in this time, so that when I came to it in the proper writing-time, I would be able to go over the text and specifically look for the answers by highlighting what I need, rather than spending time deeply reading. You've identified the problem: skimming. The resolution? Stop skimming! I suggest using the reading time to the best of your ability, but also start to work on knowing when you can stop reading the text after you've found the answer. I mean, sometimes the answer is right at the end, of course, hence my advice is controversial. But, it worked for me! Could you steal time from the writing section of the exam to put towards reading? Do you think it's possible to improve your writing skills so that you can write quickly and accurately, in order to accommodate for the reading section?

All just ideas for you to play around with!

[carolinewang206]

For listening, the skill of taking notes is difficult to master. I sometimes would think "Yep, I understand the jist of this text" and by the time I'd actually write my ideas down, I'd forget the exact details to answer the question, particularly for the more complicated listening texts towards the end of the section.

How are you using the reading time at the beginning of the exam? I used that for the reading texts, so I would aim to get through at least one (I did beginners!) in this time, so that when I came to it in the proper writing-time, I would be able to go over the text and specifically look for the answers by highlighting what I need, rather than spending time deeply reading. You've identified the problem: skimming. The resolution? Stop skimming! I suggest using the reading time to the best of your ability, but also start to work on knowing when you can stop reading the text after you've found the answer. I mean, sometimes the answer is right at the end, of course, hence my advice is controversial. But, it worked for me! Could you steal time from the writing section of the exam to put towards reading? Do you think it's possible to improve your writing skills so that you can write quickly and accurately, in order to accommodate for the reading section?

All just ideas for you to play around with!

Hey hey!! thank you so much!

But i spoke to my parents this afternoon, and we were thinking it may be better to drop it, because I did ancient history accelerated, and got an 89 for that. I was thinking about just dropping to do 8 units this year, and smashing them because for less effort I get far better results in them as you can see in my initial post ^^^

I would then have a lot more time to work on my extensions.

What are your thoughts??

Thank you!!!

[elysepopplewell]

Hey hey!! thank you so much!

But i spoke to my parents this afternoon, and we were thinking it may be better to drop it, because I did ancient history accelerated, and got an 89 for that. I was thinking about just dropping to do 8 units this year, and smashing them because for less effort I get far better results in them as you can see in my initial post ^^^

I would then have a lot more time to work on my extensions.

What are your thoughts??

Thank you!!!

Okay, that's interesting! I didn't realise you had the option. Ultimately, you make the final call, but I suggest dropping French if it's giving you this much anx. I assume it's given you anx if you are feeling like the weaker link in the class purely because of the connections and experiences of the other students, which is totally understandable! For this reason, I'd suggest leaving French and exerting your energy else where. Your marks for the other subjects look very promising!

But, this is all from an outsider - only you know what you're feeling and what is the best course to take!

[carolinewang206]

Thank you!!!

Yes I think I'm going to drop it, I spoke to some of my teachers today and they think it's best to drop! Thank you so much anyway for all of your advice for French! I do really appreciate it

[elysepopplewell]

Thank you!!!

Yes I think I'm going to drop it, I spoke to some of my teachers today and they think it's best to drop! Thank you so much anyway for all of your advice for French! I do really appreciate it

I'm happy you feel as though you've made the right decision - always happy to help with your other subjects

[SRH923]

Awesome results! Just out of curiosity, what topics were assessed in ur eco exam?